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Rune and Tina had managed to levitate Regulus and get him onto her bed.
"What the hell happened?!" asked Tina, holding her wand tight in her hands.
"I- I don't know," panicked Rune. "He just asked me to help him. I—" She pushed her hair out of her face. "He's bleeding. We need to get his shirt off."
A quick severing charm had them cutting through his robes and shirt and just as they were about to peel it away, urgent knocks banged against the door.
Rune glanced warily at Tina before rushing to the door and opening it just enough to reveal the person on the other side.
Rabastan stood there, looking disheveled and worried, trembling slightly as he asked, "Is Regulus here?"
Rune opened her mouth but when no words came out, she settled with nodding.
"Let me in."
She turned to gauge Tina's reaction and when she received a nod, she let him in and locked the door behind him.
Rabastan stilled when he caught sight of Tina standing in the room, but he quickly recovered when his attention landed on Regulus.
"What in Merlin's name happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me that. He just showed up here and asked me to help him," explained Rune.
She hurried back to Regulus and caught sight of a greyish jet of light hit his left arm from Rabastan's direction and when she turned to him for an explanation, he was too busy examining Regulus to pay her heed.
Rune quickly peeled away the layers of his clothing and all three of them gasped in shock when they found that the entire stretch of skin running from his neck to his arm was black and his veins were pulsating violently against it.
The root of his problem was the base where his neck met his shoulder.
Something black was oozing out of it, mixing with his blood to create a foamy, thick substance.
"What is that?" demanded Rabastan.
Tina moved to touch it, but Rune quickly hit her hand away.
So, instead, Tina cast a spell and as a phantom finger touched his bloody foam, it began to shake violently as it disintegrated and rotted.
"Venom," commented Tina. "From a very deadly serpent."
Rune's hand flew to her mouth as it finally clicked in her mind.
She had bitten him.
Before the end of fifth year, after the quidditch final, they'd been making out, and she bit him.
He was poisoned.
With her venom.
Rune immediately backed away from him. "Oh, he needs to get to St. Mungo's! He needs a healer right now!"
"No!" affirmed Rabastan. "No. He can't go to St. Mungo's. He'll be fine. I'm sure he's just been triggered by the..." Both Rune and Tina waited for him to finish his sentence, but he didn't. "Look, he can't go to St. Mungo's. Is there a spell or something to get it out?"
"I- I—" Rune stammered, unable to form any intelligible sentences.
Tina said, "Rune, calm down. If anyone knows spells to save him, it's you. That's probably why he came here."
"I have a book somewhere about poison." Rune hurried to her bookshelf and crouched down to the floor. She threw several books aside until she found the right one and then she began to hurriedly page through it.
"Tina, please numb him," ordered Rune. "Use the black out spell."
She continued to sift through the pages of the book as she said, "Rabastan, I have a vial of potion in my bathroom cabinet. It's unlabeled and green. Please get it."
When Rune found the page, she carried the book to the bed and placed it on her bedside.
Rabastan brought the vial, and she emptied its contents into Regulus' mouth.
It was the same potion she used during her monthly sheds to soothe the pain. The dosage was strong enough for her, she knew it would be a suitable anesthetic for him.
"Please sneak into the infirmary. I need Murtlap Essence, Essence of Dittany, Antidote to Common Poisons, Healing Paste, Wound Cleaning Potion and Sleeping Drought. Get whatever supplies you can. Then go to Professor Slughorn and ask him for Dittany leaves. Tell him that Regulus got burnt by the fireplace."
Once Rabastan and Tina were out of the room, Rune looked down at Regulus.
Her hands trembled as she lifted her hand to his shoulder, and she alternated between shaking them and balling them into fists as she took deep breaths and willed them to remain steady.
She needed to get the venom out of him before she could do anything else.
"Expelio," she said, trying to use her wand to draw the venom out but all it did was make Regulus groan in his sleeping state.
"Reparifors," she tried, and again nothing happened.
She tried a collection of healing spells from the book and from her memory, but still the venom stayed in his body.
"Come on, you stubborn arse," she urged, poking his shoulder with her wand as if she could physically draw the venom out.
She held her place in the book with her finger and continued to page through for animal-induced poisoning and skimmed the pages with serpents. She found nothing.
In her frustration, she tossed the book aside.
A serpent could not be poisoned by its own venom.
The sentence had been ringing in her mind and since she had no other option, she took her chances and lowered her mouth to his shoulder.
"Please work," she pleaded before opening her mouth at his neck.
His blood tasted bitter and burned her tongue, but as soon as she pulled, she felt his body tense and thick liquid entered her mouth, searing her tongue with its pungent acidic taste.
She knew exactly what it was. Her venom.
She hurried to the bathroom and spat it out into the toilet before rinsing her mouth and going back to him to suck out more. She repeated the process five times over until she was sure she'd gotten out every last drop.
All in all, there had been less than a teaspoon amount of venom in his system and yet, it managed to cause such destruction.
Once Rabastan and Tina returned with all the equipment and potions she needed, the three of them got to work.
Rune ordered them around and did most of the healing herself, needing Tina to help her by holding him down and for the simultaneous healing spells. Rabastan moved around measuring the amounts for potions they needed and handing it to them as asked.
"How did you get the venom out?" asked Tina, watching as his skin was turning from pitch black to a purple reddish and the swelling was going down.
"Suction," answered Rune.
"A spell?"
Rune didn't answer her as she followed yet another spell from the book and all three of them let out loud breaths of relief when the incisions began to close on themselves.
By the time they had finished bandaging his arm, the sun had fully risen.
As Rune stepped away from the bed, her knees nearly gave out, but Tina reached out to steady her.
"You did it," murmured Tina. "He'll be okay."
Rabastan shook his head as he raked his fingers through his hair. "Rune, I don't know how we'll ever pay you back. I don't even know when he got bitten. I'm so sorry he came to you with it."
Rune tried to wave her hand dismissively but when she caught sight of Regulus' blood on her hands, she grimaced. His blood was everywhere. On her clothes too. Her floor. Her bed. His body. Everywhere.
"I need to shower," she remarked. "And then I need to sleep for 24 hours straight."
"Right, we'll get out of your hair then," said Rabastan. "I'll come see to him later. Hopefully, I'll be able to get him out of your room."
Once both of them were gone from her room, Rune slumped against the door as she took in the full sight of Regulus passed out on her bed and the weight of what had happened crashed into her.
It was like she came plummeting down from her rush of adrenaline because she felt as though she might lose her mind.
Regulus had to be crazy.
He'd let the venom run through his veins for over five months.
It was no wonder he looked like a walking corpse. He was days away from becoming an actual corpse.
Rune used up the remaining towels and solutions to scrub off the blood from the floor. She'd carefully pulled the bloody sheets from beneath Regulus and replaced it.
His shirt was completely unusable, so she banished it. There was blood on his trousers, but she was going to be getting into the bed after she showered.
She was not going to sleep next to Regulus if he was wearing nothing but underpants.
Once the traces of blood were removed from her room, she went into the shower and scrubbed herself until her skin began to peel.
All he had to do was tell her that her venom had spilled into him months before and they could have solved the problem before it got that far.
As she wrung her fingers over and over with water and soap, she tried not to think about how many things could have gone wrong.
She could have nicked a vessel in his shoulder.
She could have left a drop of poison in him.
He could have gone into septic shock.
He could be brain dead.
Rune shook her head and turned off the shower.
He was fine.
He would be.
He had to be.
As she dried herself, she realized that she had forgotten to take in new clothes to change into.
It didn't matter that Regulus was in a medically induced sleep, she nearly tripped over herself in embarrassment as she sprinted to her cupboards and grabbed the closest pair of pyjamas that she could before running back to the bathroom and slamming the door.
When she was pleased by the fact that she was fully clothed, covered from her neck to her ankles, she walked out of the bathroom and went to the bed.
She checked Regulus' pulse, pulled at his eyes, heard his heartbeat, changed his bandages one more time and then reassured herself that he was okay again.
Then, she tucked the blanket in around him and finally got into bed at his side.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, sleep pulled her into oblivion.